Spam text messages from your own phone number? Spoofing is very common and there is little you can do about it.
Text spam is no stranger to anyone these days. Whether it’s messages purporting to be from your carrier offering you a “gift”or Netflix asking you to open a link and “renew your subscription”, these attempts are unfortunately all too common. However, it is unusual when these messages do not come from some strange source, but from your own phone number.
Spam text messages from your own phone number?
Receiving spam text from your own phone number doesn’t mean you’ve been hacked, although you might think so at first. You groan because you received another spam, and then you realize that the sender is none other than yourself.
But no, this does not mean that your number has been compromised or that hackers have stolen your information. This type of attack is called “spoofing”. The attacker sends the message not from their email address or phone number, but from the source they want, including, more and more often, from your own phone number.
These phishing attempts are as ridiculous as they are transparent. Well done guys, you’ve figured out how to text from my own number and you’re using it to come up with the same scams over and over again. Why did I come to the conclusion that this time it’s legal? Because the message comes from me?
Spoofing is widespread and there is little you can do about it.
Can we do something about this? Unfortunately not really. The only possibility left is to inform the operator or any consumer association or specialized agency. But reporting your phone number as a spammer is…let’s face it, counterproductive, to say the least. Operators are now fully aware of this kind of spam and seem unwilling or unable to deal with it properly. Reporting these attacks to consumer associations and other competent authorities is probably the best option. This may force operators to look for solutions. However, neither of these two alternatives is really effective. As a consumer, you cannot stop the spam that arrives on your device.
And it goes without saying that you must not interact with this kind of content in any way or open the included links. While some of them are completely harmless, just making you a website, others can be downright harmful.